…As FMCA Aerobic Group Marks World Walking Day
In a move to showcase the health benefits of regular exercise, The Federal Medical Center, FMC Abeokuta Aerobic group organized an 8.5 kilometers walk awareness from Ogun State Government House, ibara Abeokuta , through sapon to ijaye and terminated at the premises of the Federal medical center in idiaba, abeokuta, Ogun state.
The walk which had in attendance large numbers of the Aerobic group members, management Staff Of FMC Abeokuta and other invitees was declared opened by the Acting medical Director , FMCA, Dr. Adekunle Adediran who joined the walk from start to finish.
Addressing journalists shortly after the awareness walk, the acting Medical Director, harped on the importance of walking to the entire body systems, noting that it is one of the cheapest way to maintain a healthy living.
He added that every 4th October being a world walking day is meant to create awareness on the significance of physical exercise to the body.
According to him, “Today is a world walking day. It’s a day set aside in the world over to commemorate and remind ourselves of the importance of physical exercise. The enormous benefits of physical exercise.
“Walking has a lot of impacts. It is low cost with high impact. ” We just walked a total of about eight point two kilometers for about one hour forty five minutes. And you could see that all of us were involved, young and old, and all of us took the benefits.
While highlighting some of the benefits of walking ,the acting MD said ” The physiology and the anatomy of the body is made in such a way that we should move constantly and regularly. And so walking is a low cost and high impact form of exercise, when we move around, it affects the mood and emotion positively. The mood is uplifted, depression goes away, anxiety and stress are markedly reduced.
” It has a significant impact on the heart because when you walk or when you move, when you exercise, the heart also exercises itself and it increases the functional capacity of the heart”
While reflecting on the theme of this year’s world walking day, Dr Adekunle emphasised the significance of coming together to walk and asswell mobilise others to ensure that they engage in regular exercises as that will reduce their expenses on medicals.
On his part, the Director of physiotherapy services, FMC abeokuta, Dr. Lateef Rahman Olayinka, Explained further that walking as a safe and accessible form of exercise helps prevent non-communicable diseases that arise from sedentary lifestyle.
He also recommended a minimum of 150 minutes of walking per week in line with the World Health Organization,WHO guidelines.
According to Him ” we are encouraging people outside there to come and walk.
“You don’t have to walk at my pace. Everybody walks at their own pace.
The aerobic exercises are divided into like five zones. The best zones, zone of walking is when you walk and you push yourself a little bit and you’re able to talk when you walk. And everybody has his own level. They get to that level at different times. Now I may need to run to get to that level, but some people will need to crawl to even get to that level. So start anyhow, just take the step. Remember, the important thing is that you must be ready. Take thirty minutes of work daily. That’s the minimum amount of time recommended by WHO”. Dr. Lateef said.
Similarly, the deputy director of physiotherapy department, FMC abeokuta, Alimi Talayo recalled the testimonies of different patients who were introduced to the Aerobic group where they said that the group routine of exercises have played so much in the improvement of their health status and well being, especially those that are hypertensive as it has drastically reduced their visitation to hospitals.
He therefore lamented the lack of Culture of exercise in Nigeria because in most cases walking is done out of necessity rather than for health benefits.
He therefore stressed the need to change peoples mindset through regular awareness campaign to view walking as a health and fitness activity.
According to Him ” When you walk your way into your heart, your heart increases in strength and has the ability to pump blood. Now every tissue in our body is being fed by the blood. The food we eat, the oxygen we take will be carried by the blood. So when the leg gives us a strong heart, the heart pumps more blood. And all the organs, the kidney, the liver, the spinal plane, the intestine that is doing every other function, including the brain, they get very good nourishment from the blood so they are able to work effectively. Now what does that give us? It gives us good health. It helps to improve our mental health. You have good mood, you, you won’t break down.
“We don’t have a culture of exercise or physical activity. That is the major problem. People do walk, but they didn’t see the psychology of walking as walking for health. Most of them they walk out of stress. And that one is not going to benefit you because your mind is not going to enjoy it.
“So until you condition your mind that you are walking for health, you are walking for fitness, that is when you are going to really enjoy exercise. So I believe people walk, but they are walking out of duress, they are walking out of stress, they are walking because they don’t have money to take transport.
“Most of the people who are our patients here, particularly, those in internal medicine, some of the doctors have confessed to us that there are some of them who have uncontrolled hypertension. But the moment they’ve joined this aerobic group, they’ve been able to help them control that hypertension. And most of them will visit the hospital less in recent times”. He Concluded.
